NASCAR savior
Dale Jr. is back at the track this week, and the stakes and pressure are as high as ever.
In fact, with the lofty expectations he faced as the son and namesake of the greatest driver ever, those expectations may be even greater for Dale Jr. the talking head.
At least that certainly is the case for NASCAR in general considering the dreadful ratings and the perpetual silence surrounding the loudest sport going.
Approaching the midway point of the season - and as NASCAR switches from the Fox family of networks to NBC - NASCAR has had exactly one race this season that posted better TV numbers than the same race from 2017. One.
And that was at Michigan and the increase happened because the race was switched from FS1 to Fox.
So enter Dale Jr. in the NBC broadcast booth Sunday at Chicago. And while his star power is undeniable, it will be very interesting to see how he blends into a potential four-person announcing team and whether he will be Tony Romo or Emmitt Smith.
Those grades - for NBC's set-up in general and for Junior's debut in particular - can wait.
What is undeniable is that we are talking about NASCAR and it's something other than dreadful ratings. Here's one more: I am planning on watching some of Sunday's race if for no other reason than to see how Dale Jr. fares.
And there is greater compliment to sports personalities.
And there is no sport more in need of that than NASCAR.
Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) passes behind Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant during the first half of Game 4 of the NBA basketball Western Conference Finals in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, May 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)NBA awards
Under advice of counsel, we have given up all award shows other than the Tony's and the Nickelodeon Kids Awards.
And of course we also watch the LBGT Unity awards, the Emmy's, the Oscars, the BET awards, the Billboard Music awards, the Director's Guild of America, the CMAs, the BAFTA TV awards, the SAGs, and any other great opportunity we get to share in the life wisdom and sage words of life guidance from those truly sincere and sensitive celebrities who are so noble and so worried about all us little people.
God bless them. (Except most of them refuse to believe in God and will cuss up a storm and who knows what else.)
(Man, there truly needs to be a full-blow sarcasm font, you know? We have 12 million emojis - including one that is a pile of poop - and we can't get a sarcasm font? And we call ourselves an advanced society.)
Anyhoo, last night was another award show I skipped. The NBA awards, which was filled with moments that ranged from ironic to irrational.
Where do we start? OK, how about NBA Legend Bill Russell flipping Charles Barkley the bird during the broadcast. Yes that happened. (Maybe Russell, a five-time NBA MVP, was reminding Charles how many MVPs Chuck has. One.)
There also was Dwane Casey being named coach of the year for the outstanding job he did with Toronto, which got the No. 1 seed in the East. It was such an impressive showing that it got Casey his first CoY award and a pink slip. He now coaches Detroit.
There also was another mistake made in the MVP process, and in large part that mistake is due to the nomenclature. The word 'Valuable' completely distorts the award, because there is no player more 'valuable' in North America team sports than LeBron James. Period. He makes any team a contender. He leaves and those teams have a hard time making the playoffs.
Change the name to the MOP - 'outstanding' - or the BPBT - best player on best team - or whatever else you want to call. Case in point, swap Harden and James and where do the Rockets and Cavs finish? That Rockets cast likely would be the favorite; Harden would have led the league scoring and the Cavs would have been a first-round playoff casualty.
Of course Harden told the media he should have won it last year too, which is garbage considering that Russell Westbrook winning last year was likely one of the few times in his career that James did not deserve the award.
And of course, the conversation about the NBA awards happening this late after the season is completely accurate. It's nonsense.
But hey, it's an award show, so maybe we should expect it.
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Major props to Tom Fornelli of CBSsports.com.
Dude put in some serious research on SEC football results for those of us who occasionally like to make a friendly wager or three. For entertainment purposes only of course.
Fornelli posts the records for the SEC teams against the spread, and here are the few things that jumped out.
Remember this one come Labor Day. The SEC is 81-59 against the spread in nonconference games at neutral sites. Hmmmmmm.
Not so surprisingly, Alabama has the best record against the spread in the SEC over the last 10 years, going 78-60 (.565 winning percentage). It's also quite telling that Alabama is nasty on the road (43-26 ATS) and dominant outside of T-Town (15-6) outside of Tuscaloosa in nonconference games.
Quite surprisingly, Vandy has the second-best record against the number in the SEC at 65-58-1 (.528).
And you want to know what will get you run off, Coach Jones and Coach Dooley? Tennessee has been 28-43-1 against the number in front of the Big Orange faithful at Neyland. And as a home underdog UT is 5-15.
This and that
- We checked the MaxPreps Softball Player of the Year story because we wanted to see if the choice had better numbers than Meigs County's star pitcher who was named Tennessee player of the year. Uh, yeah, these qualify. Kentucky pitcher Montana Fouts went 37-1 for her high school team with a 0,09 ERA. She also had 481 Ks in 232 innings, hit .566 with 12 homers and 71 RBIs. Somehow, her team East Carter finished 41-2 and fourth at the state tournament.
- The ESPN body issue leaves little to imagination. That Charlotte Flair - Ric's daughter - believes her looks have nothing to do with WWE success is a figment of her imagination. Neither does her last name, right Charlotte?
- You go Ozzie Albies, the Braves youngster hit his first career walk-off homer for the Bravos last night. Well, actually with extras and rain delays, Albies' walk off was this morning.
Today's questions
True or false, shall we?
True or false, you will tune into the NASCAR race to hear Dale Jr.'s debut.
True or false, LeBron James will never win another regular-season MVP award.
You know the drill, answer two leave one. Fire away.
Ariana Grande is 24 today. She has more money than me.
Derek Jeter is 44. He also has more money than me.
In honor of ol No. 2, let's go Rushmore of shortstops. Who ya got?